This is a pg&c thread with a difference. My goals aren't going to be based on earning money, getting to a specific stake, putting in x amount of volume or anything like that. I have one simple goal and that is to get a little bit better as a player every single day.

Everyone knows that to be a good poker player you have to constantly work on your game. You have to play your A-game as much as possible. Your sessions should be focused and free of all varieties of tilt. Time spent off the table studying is as important as time spent on the tables grinding. Etc, etc. Let's face it though, it's much easier to just sit down and grind than it is to actually work on these things.

I've had a tough year, the toughest time in my ~4 year career as a professional player in fact. At one point my downswing was approaching 100 buy-ins, my bankroll was decimated and I was seriously considering packing it in and getting a real job. This motivated me to go right back to basics, to work on my game from the bottom up, focusing on all aspects of my game, not just the technical part of it. I dug deep, worked harder than I ever had before, and am glad to say I'm slowly emerging out of the pit I was in. Not only that but I believe it's made me a better player, both mentally and technically and I am very positive for the future.

However what I have noticed is that generally as my results start to improve, so does my motivation to work hard. I slip back into the old routine of playing long sessions while browsing 2p2 or chatting on Skype. The amount of time studying and working on my game decreases, in an unfounded belief that the hard work is over. Periodically I realise what I am doing and make a new effort to start working hard again, but it never lasts long. After a particularly unfocused week this week, I realised I needed to do something to keep my motivation up and that is why I'm starting this thread - to motivate myself into constantly working hard, and to make myself accountable for the way I organise and run my poker career.

The way this thread is going to help me is like this. Every day that I sit at my computer to play poker (ie not including days off) I want to do something, however small, that makes me a better player. This can be something small such as discussing a few hands over Skype or on the forums, or it can be a morning spent reviewing my database in depth, doing a sweat or review with another player, watching a vid. Just as importantly I want to learn more about how to become a better player mentally, maybe by spotting areas in my game that are let down by mental slips rather than technical knowledge, or maybe reviewing my routine, giving myself mental checkups etc.

Every day I will report in here with what I have done that day to improve myself. I will also give a quick review of how the day has gone, paying particular attention to things like how my mental state was when playing, whether I was distracted or concentrated, whether I tilted, whether I made avoidable mistakes and that kind of thing. I may post some hands if I'm interested in working on particular spots, if I want to shame myself into avoiding future spew, or if I'm proud of putting into action something I have learned.

Encouragement, suggestions, questions all welcomed!

Cliffs:

- Do something every day to improve myself as a poker player
- Honestly assess myself every day
- If you're looking for sick graphs, insane bluffs and crazy hero-calls then you're in the wrong thread

Good luck sir.

i like this.

gl!

Sounds promising .. subbed

dis gon b gud, best of luck

Good luck, always enjoy your posts in uFR.

Looking forward to seeing how you organise your off table time and seeing what off table work you do (so I can be a lazy git and copy you instead of coming up with my own plan).

Will be following.

Good luck, Ron!

gl bro

GL!

Good luck to you Ron. You're definitely a solid player at da fiddy.

Thanks guys!

I forgot to mention in the OP about the games I play. I've played full-ring since I started playing seriously about 5 years ago. I started off at 2nl with just a few dollars and built up to playing 100nl within about 6 months. About 18 months after that I gave up the business I was running and went full-time at poker, and since then I have generally played 100nl and 200nl, although I've played as high as 600nl at times. The huge downswing I had this year however had me dropping to 50nl to save my bankroll. I've stayed at 50nl and have been playing it for about six months now. I feel confident enough in my game to start moving back to 100nl, but I need to build my bankroll some more yet as I want to be extremely comfortably rolled before I move back up. So one of my secondary goals is to get back to 100nl, but I believe my primary goal of just improving every day will take care of that eventually.

31 October - How I got a bit better today:

Well I guess my main thing today was making this thread. I was linked to this article on why procrastinators procrastinate. It was the thing I needed to spur me on, kick my Instant Gratification Monkey into touch and get on with actually making the plan I've been meaning to make for a while now. Just the act of making this thread has got me feeling extremely positive about the next few months.

I also discussed a couple of spots with a good small-mid stakes player over Skype this morning after my session.

Day review:

I only played one small session this morning. I got 1000 hands in with the intention of playing another couple of thousand this afternoon. Writing the OP to this thread took longer than I expected though and I had a run planned for the second half of the afternoon so I ended up not playing any more. I think getting my plans in place is more important than a few thousand hands though so I'm not bothered about it really.

In my session, I started off with one horrendously played hand when I was starting a table with a reg heads-up. That hand kicked my focus into gear and I realised that I shouldn't be making stupid mistakes like that and for the rest of the session I played extremely disciplined. I made an effort to not have any distractions (no music and didn't open my browser) and felt much better for it. Ended the session with probably a bi or two of profit, although I don't really check results too much so don't know exactly how I did (gonna talk more about that in another post).

GL bauss

Best of luck Ron. I've always been 100% confident that you will dig yourself out. I'll likely post the occassional cheesy motivator

gl Ron!

GL

Thanks to everyone following along, didn't realise I'd get this much interest!

Just while I remember I'm going to post the hand I mentioned from the start of my session that I completely butchered. It was against a guy I've not really played HU with too much, but seems fairly straightforward, not over aggro, but not too nitty either, and probably a relatively decent player.....



After I raised the flop (which I'm undecided on - thoughts?) I just played the rest of the hand without thinking and autopiloted on my calldown, barely taking a second for each decision. I need to calm down in pots like this and think things through more thoroughly, especially as I only had 2 tables open at the time and wasn't rushed into any decisions at all.

Looking forward to this. I think it's something we all have a problem with to be honest, not doing enough away from the tables.

GL Ron. Subbed your thread.

Agree 100%. Hope this will motivate me to get better.

1st November - How I got a little bit better today:

Watched a vid on Leggo by Irishman. In it he reviews hands from a months-old session and hides both his and his opponent's hole cards so that he can talk honestly about ranges without being skewed by knowing the results. It's a really good vid in that it got me thinking about how I should be thinking about my whole range rather than my exact hand and also to think about how my range will look to my opponents.

These are concepts that I already know, but like everything in poker, there are different levels of 'knowing'. Understanding the basics of a concept is one thing, to understand the concept deeply is another. This is a concept that I believe I understand the basics of pretty well, but I know I have much more to learn.

Day review:

Another low-volume day as I went to the gym in the morning and then spent some time cooking up some lunches for next week. Got a decent session in though. At the start I was pretty distracted by catching up on 2p2 and posting in my training log, but after I got that done I felt I concentrated really well on my whole session. I felt like I played really well and picked up on a few spots where I made the less obvious but more profitable move. Results will have been skewed by four pots where I lost five buy-ins in total, but they were all coolers/beats where I was happy with the way I played (2 outered by huge whale 150bb deep in 4bet pot, set vs ******ed over-aggro Chinese reg turned gutshot, flopped set vs straight against a semi-fish 150bb deep in 3bet pot, AA<QQ aipf vs a reg). The most important thing was that I don't think losing these pots altered the way I continued to play in the session. I'll often over-compensate when a fish stacks me for a huge pot and go after them too hard, but I was aware that I might do that and consciously calmed myself down and continued to play well.

Might put another session in tonight if I have time.

GL with this.

On the hand we have basically flopped a monster HU with TP and backdoors. I think the problem with calling his flop 3bet is theres just so many cards we are not too keen on or that could stop our action. I dont play a ton of HU either but I cant see how a 4bet shove can be that wrong. Taking the pot down isnt that bad and even if the villain calls theres only a few hands we are in real bad shape against.

Forgot to mention as well but linked to this, The Poker Hero is quite a good read when it comes to things like this.

Just had a brief look at that book and it looks good, might get it ordered.

Just played a session tonight. Felt like I concentrated well and played really well until I got about 800 hands in and my concentration started wandering. Got upto about 1000 hands and decided to quit. Better to give up than to play when I'm not giving it 100% and glad I noticed that and recognised it.

2nd November - How I got a little bit better today:

Well I didn't have much time tonight so I just did a quick review of some of the hands I marked in Friday's session (had yesterday off btw hence no post). Tbh I didn't really learn much. There were hands where I knew I'd made a mistake at the time, and I already knew what I'd done wrong, and then there were hands that I wasn't sure on, and reviewing them tonight I still wasn't sure. It's much better to do these review sessions with other players, but it's tough to get these sessions set up (if anybody is interested in doing any of these then let me know). Also though I think I need to learn how to review my own play more effectively so that's something to look into next week.

Day review:

Just a quick 1000 hand session. Despite results probably not going so well I'm really happy with the way I played. I got sucked out on a couple of times, but didn't let it affect me at all and managed to make some good disciplined folds in spots where on another day I could easily have called off the rest of my stack. I probably saved about 1.5 buy-ins by making what I think were good folds like the one below (although if you disagree, let me know)....

Line looks good to me Ron, can't see how he shows up with worse here. Maybe if flop was 2 A 9 and there board ran out the same, there's a very small chance he could be turning an Ax hand into a bluff but he'd have to think you could double barrel worse. Even then, given his fold-to-3B, I think it's very unlikely.